“Suchithwa Sagaram” - an initiative towards a garbage free sea bed by Government of Kerala

The project concept “Shuchitwa Sagaram”, was evolved in a discussion held by the Hon. Minister for Fisheries Smt. J. Mercykutty Amma with the Kerala Fishing Boat Owners Association. The proposal was to collect the plastic and other garbage from the sea bed with the cooperation of the fishing boat operators take it to harbours, sort, wash and crush it in the shredding units installed in harbours and make it ready for recycling. Fishing boat operators at Neendakara harbor came forward to take the responsibility of collecting the garbage from sea take it to the land without any cost. The Hon. Minister for Fisheries Smt. J, Mercykutty Amma was the sole inspiration of the project. Under her patronage a team of dedicated Govt. officials from Harbour engineering Department, Fisheries Department, NETFISH (MPEDA), State Shuchitwa Mission, Society for Assistance to Fishermen (SAF), etc were mobilized and the project Shuchitwa Sagaram was launched as a multi-disciplinary project

Wide parameter search for isolated pulsars using the Hough transform

We use the Hough transform to analyze data from the second science run of the LIGO interferometers, to look for gravitational waves from isolated pulsars. We search over the whole sky and over a large range of frequencies and spin-down parameters. Our search method is based on the Hough transform, which is a semi-coherent, computationally efficient, and robust pattern recognition technique. We also present a validation of the search pipeline using hardware signal injections.Comment: Presented at GWDAW-9 in Annecy, France (Dec. 2004). 11 pages, 5 Figures. To appear in Classical and Quantum Gravit

On credit spread slopes and predicting bank risk

The authors examine whether credit-spread curves, engendered by a mandatory subordinated-debt requirement for banks, would help predict bank risk. They extract the credit-spread curves each quarter for each bank in our sample, and analyze the information content of credit-spread slopes. They find that credit-spread slopes are significant predictors of future credit spreads. However, credit-spread slopes do not provide significant additional information on future bank-risk variables, over and above other bank-specific and market-wide information.Bank capital ; Risk

Monitoring and controlling bank risk: does risky debt serve any purpose?

To examine whether mandating banks to issue subordinated debt would enhance market monitoring and control risk-taking, the authors extract the credit-spread curve for each banking firm in their sample. After controlling for changes in market and liquidity variables, they find that changes in credit spreads do not reflect changes in bank risk variables. The result is robust to firm type, examination rating, size, leverage, and profitability, as well as to different model specifications. They also find that issuing subordinated debt does not alter banks' risk-taking behavior. They conclude that a mandatory subordinated debt requirement for banks is unlikely to provide the intended benefits of enhancing risk-monitoring or controlling risk-taking.Bank capital ; Risk

A group theoretic approach to detecting gravitational waves from asymmetric rotating neutron stars

The era of advanced ground based interferometric detectors of gravitational waves (GW) has arrived. These detectors are expected to go line in six years or so from now and which will have requisite sensitivity for detect- ing and observing astrophysical gravitational wave sources. In this article we will focus on a specific GW source, the GWs emitted by an isolated rotating neutron star/pulsar, and describe a novel approach to address this highly computationally intensive problem. We will describe how the symmetries in the model can be potentially used to reduce the computational effort

Self-tuning of threshold for a two-state system

A two-state system (TSS) under time-periodic perturbations (to be regarded as input signals) is studied in connection with self-tuning (ST) of threshold and stochastic resonance (SR). By ST, we observe the improvement of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in a weak noise region. Analytic approach to a tuning equation reveals that SNR improvement is possible also for a large noise region and this is demonstrated by Monte Carlo simulations of hopping processes in a TSS. ST and SR are discussed from a little more physical point of energy transfer (dissipation) rate, which behaves in a similar way as SNR. Finally ST is considered briefly for a double-well potential system (DWPS), which is closely related to the TSS

Quantitative Imaging of Protein-Protein Interactions by Multiphoton Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy using a Streak camera

Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy (FLIM) using multiphoton excitation techniques is now finding an important place in quantitative imaging of protein-protein interactions and intracellular physiology. We review here the recent developments in multiphoton FLIM methods and also present a description of a novel multiphoton FLIM system using a streak camera that was developed in our laboratory. We provide an example of a typical application of the system in which we measure the fluorescence resonance energy transfer between a donor/acceptor pair of fluorescent proteins within a cellular specimen.Comment: Overview of FLIM techniques, StreakFLIM instrument, FRET application

Using generalized PowerFlux methods to estimate the parameters of periodic gravitational waves

We investigate methods to estimate the parameters of the gravitational-wave signal from a spinning neutron star using Fourier transformed segments of the strain response from an interferometric detector. Estimating the parameters from the power, we find generalizations of the PowerFlux method. Using simulated elliptically polarized signals injected into Gaussian noise, we apply the generalized methods to estimate the squared amplitudes of the plus and cross polarizations (and, in the most general case, the polarization angle), and test the relative detection efficiencies of the various methods.Comment: 8 pages, presented at Amalid7, Sydney, Australia (July 2007), fixed minor typos and clarified discussion to match published CQG version; updated reference

Low temperature deformation of the R-phase in a NiTiFe shape memory alloy

Deformation in the P3 phase (R-phase) of NiTiFe was investigated by in situ neutron diffraction during compressive loading at cryogenic temperatures. At 216 K, upon loading the R-phase detwinned and subsequently underwent a reversible stress-induced transformation to the B19\u27 phase (martensite). At 92 K on the other hand, detwinning was suppressed and the stress-induced martensite formed did not transform back upon unloading. The experiments also directly observed a hitherto theoretically predicted B33 phase. Rietveld refinement of the neutron diffraction spectra were used to determine lattice parameters of the B33 and R-phases. Plane-specific elastic moduli were also determined for the R-phase